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At a press conference yesterday in Turkey, President Barack Obama repudiated the Religious Right’s fallacy that the United States is a “Christian nation.”

"One of the great strengths of the United States," the President said, "is ... we have a very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

Despite the fact that that our Constitution established a secular government and has no mention of Jesus, Christianity, or any god(s), members of Congress continue to spread the false message that America was founded as a Christian nation. It is important that President Obama, our Constitutional Scholar-in-Chief, not follow in the footsteps of his predecessors or succumb to pressure by the Religious Right to continue spreading this fallacy. Please call or email President Obama below and thank him for defending the secular nature of our government.

Our founders created an innovative form of government that removed religion from civil governance. Having just experienced the intolerance and violence caused by nations that favored one religion over another or religion over no religion, they were intentional in constructing a Constitution that established a secular government.

Unfortunately the Religious Right, not learning the lessons of history or of the events of today, has been attempting to transform our secular state into a sectarian one.

The Religious Right will be mobilizing their constituents to attack the President regarding this statement. Please counter their efforts by emailing or calling the White House to thank President Obama for publicly repudiating the “Christian nation” fallacy.

Note: Email information is below. If you prefer to call and leave a comment about this for the President, the phone number is (202) 456-1414.

Below is the text the Secular Coalition provided:

Thank you for repudiating the fallacy that the United States is a “Christian nation” during your press conference in Turkey. The freedom of conscience guaranteed by our Constitution is especially important to me as a nontheist American.

For years, the Religious Right has been working to rewrite American history. As a constitutional scholar, you enjoy a unique opportunity to educate Americans that our founders created a secular government, which was a unique and intentional construction to prevent religious intolerance and sectarian strife.

As our nation has become more and more diverse, the need for this secular construction is even more relevant today than at our founding. Thank you again for defending the secular character of our government.